Episode 635: Secrets to Boosting Teamwork & Morale

Spiffy Tiffy and Dynamite Dana wax poetic about a topic coming up quite a bit in offices these days: teamwork and morale, and how to make it the best possible. Together, they touch on the following:

• Who’s responsible

• How to own your morale

• Suggestions for jumpstarting positivity

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Transcript:

0:00:05.6 Kiera Dent: Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I have this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled over 165 different offices, coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you. We are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress and create A-teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast.

0:00:51.1 KD: Hello Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and you guys I'm so excited for consultant take over. Guys, that was me attempting to sing into this microphone for you, and I hope you loved it. Today, consultant take over, grab your pens, grab your notebooks, bringing in the heat today. And as always thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

0:01:10.1 Tiffanie: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Tiffanie, and you are here on the Dental A Team consultant takeover where the traveling Dental A Team consultants take over the mic and share tips and tricks from hundreds of offices nationwide. And today I have with me, Dynamite Dana. Dana, you have been on a roll. We have been podcasting for... Oh my gosh, almost an hour now, honestly. And your tips and tricks have just been mind-blowing, your verbiage was awesome on the last one, I freaking loved it. So now I set you up to have to wing it to bring it here on this one, you're welcome. I just... As I was speaking was realized.

0:01:41.8 Dana: No pressure.

[chuckle]

0:01:44.8 Tiffanie: Thank you so much for podcasting with me today. We all know Kiera does a million solos. I've done a few... I think we've all done a few solos, but it's just so much more fun when we have at least two people on here to kind of chit-chat with. I feel like we're on video, we're talking, we're like two pals just chatting, and we're gonna just be two pals chatting about the normal everyday conversation of teamwork and morale. Because you know, that's what brunch talk is, right? I was kidding. I'm just kidding. That is not brunch talk, but that is today, teamwork and morale, and I think everything we talked about today, has been super relevant, but I really, really think teamwork and morale has been coming up a ton for practices.

0:02:25.0 Tiffanie: I think, I think employment is different today than it ever has been in our history, and I think teamwork and morale is at the center of that. Morale means more to team members today than it ever has before, we're in the day and age of if it doesn't feel good we're not doing it. And I can't disagree with that on a lot of levels. And so I struggle with some of the practices too and they're like, "I don't understand," I'm like, "I don't get it either." But I feel the same, if it doesn't feel good, do I really wanna do it? And those are the choices that we're all making every single day, and so I think there's a lot to be said for teamwork and morale and Dana, have you seen it in practices recently too?

0:03:08.4 Dana: Yeah, I have very few practices or this hasn't come up, and I think one thing I always like to point out when it comes to this is, this is something that takes a ton of work, that takes a ton of constant focus, oftentimes you think, "Okay, I'm just gonna do this office event and we're gonna go out one time and we're gonna bond this one time and we're gonna put in a little bit of effort this month," And then it falls off, or we think that's enough and team cycle with this, we tend to see morale stay really high and then 90 days later, we see it dip again. And so it is, catching it before it dips, right? And to do that, we have to just make it a constant focus.

0:03:47.6 Tiffanie: Yeah, I totally agree, I love that. Now, question for you, I have my opinions, but I wanna know your opinion as well. Teamwork and morale often lies on... It ends up in the hands of your leadership or your doctors, your owners, but who do you feel like is responsible for teamwork, and morale in a business or a practice?

0:04:07.2 Dana: I think everyone. I think team is in teamwork and it takes all team members being willing to work together, being willing to face challenges, being willing to grow, being willing to step up and look for opportunities to push other team members to increase that morale. Even if it is recognizing when somebody helps you out and saying thank you. I think it can come from anybody, I think team members look to leadership to set the tone, but I think team members own a piece of it just as much as leadership does.

0:04:39.2 Tiffanie: Yeah, I totally agree with you, and that's what I was thinking too. As we're going on this topic, we start out as like, what can we do to set the morale, but then I'm thinking, well, we talked about ownership just on a podcast, we just recorded. And I think that that is huge here too, being able to own what we bring and what effects positive or negative we have on the team work and the morale of the practice. And I know I get into my cycles, everything in life is cyclical and we'll always end up back in the same places unless we make a change, and that's the definition of insanity. And I think that's why people go crazy, they're like, "Well, I can't stay in the same place anymore." Well, there's small changes you can make, you don't have to make a whole life change, but there are small things. And so I know I go through these phases and I'll get to the point where I'm like, "What the heck?" With travel. I'll go wild and I'm like, "Sure I can't do this anymore," no, that's probably not what it is, what is my ownership in this?

0:05:36.9 Tiffanie: I think, well, what is Dental A Team doing? How are they making it exciting? Or Kiera will say, "Let's add in more fun events." I'm like, "Kiera, that's not always it." Sometimes it's just that we have to take... I have to take a look at what I have been doing, how have I been contributing? How have I been helping the other consultants to feel amazing at what they're doing? How have I been investing and pouring myself into our company and what we're putting out? Because that's ultimately how I'm going to feel best about my position in whatever I'm doing, and I know I feel better. I think everybody does. I feel better when I give somebody else compliments, and I feel better when I say "Thank you, Nicole," To the cash register lady at the store, and she's like, "Oh my gosh, thank you for knowing my name," I'm like, your name... I talk about those things a lot, but it really does make... It helps build me up so that I think I bring a different... I think I bring a different vibe and a different morale to the team when I can identify why I'm stuck in a space and make that change for myself compared to coming and showing up and expecting the rest of you guys to change me.

0:06:45.3 Tiffanie: If I come in a bad mood, I expect you guys to bring it up and you'd have put in the teamwork and the morale to make me feel better. It doesn't usually work that way. But when I can show up and know, I'm in a funk, and how am I going to change that by being better for you guys, it often will change it for me.

0:07:07.3 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and you guys, how was your 2022? I want you to look back and tell me, was it the year of years or was it a really hard year? Did you crush it? Or did it crush you? This is the time guys for end of year. Dental A Team Platinum is welcoming you. Where we will physically fly to your practice, we will come and we will elevate your dreams and make them into a reality. And guys, space is limited and prices are going up, this is not a sales pitch. This is not something where I'm trying to scare you into it. I'm just facing the reality of inflation is here, flights are expensive, and I want to see as many people as we possibly can and serve as many as we can. So if you wanna be part of our elite group of people, there are limited spaces, 'cause our consultants can only see as many. We are taking on 10 new platinum offices by the end of the year. And that's it, that's all we have space for. So if you wanna be one of the elite 10, come join us, be a part of our top notch elite doctor community. Be a part of our office manager and hygiene and front office communities. Get your operations manual done and live the life that you've only been dreaming of today. Email me [email protected] and make 2023 truly a year that's unforgettable.

0:08:27.0 KD: We are a complete tax write off, and like I said, we are only taking 10 offices. So don't get left behind, be one of those 10, and I cannot wait to give you the biggest warmest welcome to completely and utterly changing your life for good. Welcome to the Dental A Team. I can't wait for you to join us, [email protected]. Cheers to 2023 and making you your best self yet.

0:08:55.6 Dana: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more in 2021. My goal was, I would always... And I started it just with my friends, and then I expanded it to pretty much everyone. And my goal was if I thought something nice... If I looked at my friend's earrings and I thought, "Oh, they're so pretty," I was to say it. So that was my goal for 2021 when I thought those things that I actually had to force myself to say them. And I went into it being like, "I want people to hear these good things, I want them to hear the things that I think." And truly, truly what I got from it was far more immeasurable. Giving that joy and giving that, gave so much back tenfold probably than the person hearing it. And so I think about that when it comes to morale, but if I can leave my negative things outside and I can show up and I can be positive, or if I feel disconnected that I'm the one that reaches out, or it is truly, truly will make a difference and team members will really have a big impact on that.

0:10:04.1 Tiffanie: Yeah, I love that. That's brilliant, and you do give the best compliments I know. You always show up with that. You really truly do stick by that if you think something you'll say it about that thing, which I love, it makes everybody feel good. So I think that's brilliant. So we all have our piece to play in teamwork, I love that you said that team is literally... You're a part of the team, and it's in the word teamwork, so I love that, and then morale is... I think morale is a combination of the work that we all put in, and you said at the beginning, leadership sets the tone. I think number one person who sets the tone is your doctor, owner. So who's the big kahuna? Who is everybody looking to? And then it goes down from there. Down your leadership ladder. I know if an office manager is responsible for morale and our doctors like, "I don't really feel like being here. I don't really... I don't love dentistry. I don't wanna be here every day, I hate my hours, I wish I could do more surgery." Your office manager pep rallying, running around trying to make everybody happy is not going to fix the situation.

0:11:07.9 Tiffanie: Regardless, they're still looking towards you doctors. So just make sure that you guys, and even associate doctors, I think not owners, I think you have a huge piece to play in the morale as well. I know I've heard "His day is done, so he just gets up and leave. He doesn't check with anybody." But then my owner doctor checks to see if dental assistants need anything. Show up, that's the biggest piece. Teamwork and morale is just showing up. Be your best selves. Give more out than you expect to get back, and understand the part and the piece that you play in setting the morale. If the morale is off, your teamwork will fail. If you're morale is off, people don't wanna help each other. Your teamwork is, I'm out for myself, one for one. If your morale is high and people understand how fun it can be to work for you, work at your practice or your business, then your teamwork is gonna go up. They're more likely to say, "Hey, how can I help?" or "Hey, Dana, you seem down today. What can I do? Do you just need to chat? Are you good?" Whereas if morale is low, I'm low too, so I might not even notice that Dana is down today. I might not even... I might not be in a space to pay attention because I'm just looking at myself. What do you think, Dana?

0:12:26.4 Dana: Yeah, I love that so much, because I feel like, again, they're going to look to leadership to set the tone, and so if leadership comes in with that positive, if leadership is looking in ways. And oftentimes I hear, when I hear offices say, "I don't have team members that take initiative, we lack initiative," I always wanna say, "Then let's take a look at your morale, your culture, because that's probably where that's coming from."

0:12:52.3 Tiffanie: Yeah, I totally agree. I do hear that a lot. I don't have team members, I just need to find team members who are willing to take initiative and do what's hard. I use myself as an example all the time because I really like to evaluate myself, number one, but I really need to look at who I was and who I've become, and I think my co-workers and my doctor that I know sometimes listen to this, but I know, I do have my office manager from years ago, she listens to our podcast often, and I hope she listens at the right time. Because she played just a huge piece in helping to mold the person that I am regardless of how well or how well we did not get to get along. But I remember when I was in my early 20s, I hated this... I hate even saying it sometimes, but it's so funny and so embarrassing at the same time. So we had a refrigerator with water bottles in it. But then my doctor loved these Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. Okay, he wanted the practice to smell like a bakery, and I'm like, "We are a dental practice, we are not a bakery. This is ridiculous" Number one in my mind. I was just like, "This is psycho."

0:13:58.9 Dana: No one told him to lay off the sugar?

0:14:01.7 Tiffanie: Exactly. He's like, "Get the only sugar free ones." All day telling people like, "No," they're like, "Oh, getting cavities, drumming up business," I'm like, "No, they're sugar free, but they still will cause cavities." It was such a thing. It was a debacle. It's fine, but in my early 20s, I was like, I'm not... That's not part of my job to make the cookies and to do the water bottles. I have worked here long enough, I've worked here for five, six years, however long, and I was like, I'm not doing these stupid things anymore, this is no longer me, this is that person over there. And I remember my office manager at the time was like, if you're not willing to do the tedious tasks, then how do you expect someone else who's "underneath" you to want to do it too? She would go in and clean the bathroom, she would go in and change the toilet paper, she would make sure that the front lobby was clean, she would go and she'd have a magic erase marker on the walls because they're scuff marks. And so much so, that what it did, was it made the rest of us like, oh, you're not... Let me do that, we would jump up and go do it.

0:15:09.6 Tiffanie: Because she was that kind of a leader. So I think being a leader, one thing I've learned in my tenure within adult life, we'll say, is that if you're not willing to be the leader that's willing to do the small tedious tasks that are "beneath" you or that you don't want to do, you can't expect anyone else to do it either. So that sets the tone and the morale 100%. And if you're waiting for people to see the scuff and get up and do it, you already saw it. Why not just do it? And I think that that's a huge piece in my personal life, at least, of morale that I learned was you're gonna get better results if you're willing to be the leader. That's the difference between a leader and a manager is really leading to the result that you want rather than sitting around and waiting for someone to take the initiative of something that you already saw wasn't being done.

0:16:08.7 Dana: Yeah, and the time and the thought that you put into, every time you walk by that scuff mark, ugh. My team members haven't taken initiative and done that. Nobody has noticed that or done that. The amount of time and energy that you've put into even thinking about that scuff is a fraction of what it would have taken you just to clean it up.

0:16:27.8 Tiffanie: Amen. I love that, and we all know that I am not about wasting time nor energy, so do the thing, just do the thing. I know we talk about, say the thing that's making it hard to say, do the thing that you don't wanna do, do the hard things so that other people will learn how to do it too. So I think teamwork and morale, I know you guys probably walked into this thinking we were gonna have all of these tips and tricks of, do this, do that, do this, buy this, do this event. And you can do all of those things, but I think at the bottom of it all and the end of the day is just edifying one another, being good people, doing the things that you don't want to do, so that other people learn how to do it, and really owning your stuff, so. Gosh, Dana, tell me if there's other action in MCC but I think... I'm taking your... I'm stealing your own your stuff, you used this on another podcast, and I loved that. And I think it's so relevant, own your staff, if you're not in a space of good teamwork or morale, figure out why and change that. How can you break the mold of who you are... Who you're showing up, or how you're showing up today. How can you break that mold? Break that chain of insanity, that cyclical phase. So own your stuff, how can you break the mold and then just do the hard things. Do the things that make you a better leader and set that tone for your practice.

0:17:45.3 Dana: Yeah.

0:17:45.6 Tiffanie: Dana.

0:17:46.7 Dana: I love it. I love it. And sometimes we think it has to take these huge moving mountain things, right. And it truly is, truly, truly is placing the sands in that ant hill or whatever analogy you want. It's those little things. It's the thinkies. It's the, hey, that was fantastic. It's the, oh my gosh, our front office is the best at what they do. It's those little things that push teams to grow together, to work together. It's just the small things.

0:18:17.7 Tiffanie: Yeah, I love it. So make yourself a goal like what Dana had. I loved that. 2021, if you saw something, you said it. I love that. Make it a goal for the practice, I think that's a brilliant... If you see somebody doing something well, make sure that you say it out loud. We tend to keep those things inside or I think we're too busy, just do it, so... I love it. Thanks Dana. Thanks for being here with me today, that was a fun one to do with you. I loved it.

0:18:40.5 Dana: Yeah, it was. Thanks.

0:18:41.8 Tiffanie: You're welcome. Alrighty guys, that wraps up the Dental A Team Podcast consultant takeover. Let us know what you think. We love hearing from our listeners. Truly, truly love it. Drop us a five star review or email us over at [email protected]. Thanks so much for listening. We'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.

0:19:00.7 KD: And that wraps it up for another episode of The Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.